Cats and Dogs: Our Two Most Popular Household Pets

Around 35% of homes in the United Kingdom have dogs. In American homes, the number is higher, at around 44%.

Arguably, around 30,000 years ago, wolf-like animals would have been attracted to the smell emanating from the open fires of nomadic hunter-gatherers.

Over time, some animals became tamer than others and started trusting humans.

Roughly 20,000 to 30,000 years ago, some wolf-like animals became domesticated.

An estimated 12,000 years ago, human lifestyles changed as groups formed permanent settlements and cultivated crops.

That may have been when humans started selectively breeding their dogs to be faster, stronger, and larger, like evolution on overdrive.

Today, the FCI officially recognises around 360 breeds of dogs from all over the world.

Dogs show so much love, respect, and friendship. We wish their lifespans were longer, as they are greatly missed when they are gone.

A dog's vision is different from ours. My dog Kobi will not see red tomatoes the way we see them; a red tomato would appear a dark brownish grey to a dog.

Cones are photoreceptor cells in the retina of the eye. Unlike humans, who have three types of cones, dogs, cats, and most mammals have only two types, lacking the cone that is most sensitive to red wavelengths.

Cones are used to see colour. Humans have three types of cones: blue, green, and red, and one of our eyes contains roughly 6 million cones.

The history of our pet cats.

About 29% of households in the United Kingdom have cats; the percentage is similar in the United States.

DNA analysis reveals that all domestic cats today descend from the African wildcat (Felis silvestris lybica).

It is thought that cats were domesticated at least 10,000 years ago. Early farms were probably overrun with rodents feeding on cereal grain.

Wild cats were attracted by the large number of rodents, which helped reduce the number of vermin. Over time, farmers and cats grew closer, slowly leading to the domestication of the wildcat.

The Fertile Crescent is believed to be the very first region where farmers settled and started growing crops.

The Fertile Crescent is the crescent-shaped region in Western Asia and North Africa that spans the modern-day countries of Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, and arguably Egypt.

Comparing a cat's lifespan to a human's: on average, cats live between 13 and 17 years, but a small minority can live much longer.

Cats mature very quickly; the first year of their lives is equivalent to that of a human aged 15 years.

A cat at the age of two is deemed to be equivalent to 24 human years. As cats age beyond three years, the gap lessens to approximately one cat year for every four human years.

The oldest cat ever recorded was a tabby named Creme Puff, who lived in Austin, Texas, United States. She reached an amazing age of 38 years. Creme Puff still holds the Guinness World Record for the longest-living cat.

You have probably noticed that cats spend a lot of their time asleep; it has been estimated that, on average, they sleep for 13–16 hours per day.

Domestic cats are also fast runners; for short periods, they can reach speeds of up to 30 miles per hour, or 48 kilometres per hour. The fastest running speed of any man or woman is just over 27 mph, or 43 kph.

The domestic cat is a predatory species that still hunts and kills small mammals like mice, rats, and occasionally birds.

In the past, pest control was the main reason for keeping them, but that has changed; now they are mostly kept as companions.

It is not surprising that domestic cats are predatory animals when you realise they share roughly 95% of their DNA with tigers.

Written with British spelling.

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